Judaism is a religion that has existed for several thousand years, notes Professor Yakov Rabkin of the University of Montreal. Zionism on the other hand, is a relatively recent political movement which developed in the late 19th century in response to European antisemitism. Zionism depends on antisemitism to survive, he argues. They are two sides of the same coin. Listen to a surprising 7 minute interview. Learn more:

The daily dose of terror inflicted on these Semites isn't noticed by most Jews - even though the incidents resemble stories told by our grandparents.

Here's a statistic that you won't see in research on anti-Semitism, no matter how meticulous the study is. In the first six months of the year, 154 anti-Semitic assaults have been recorded, 45 of them around one village alone. Some fear that last year's record high of 411 attacks - significantly more than the 312 attacks in 2010 and 168 in 2009 - could be broken this year.

Fifty-eight incidents were recorded in June alone, including stone-throwing targeting farmers and shepherds, shattered windows, arson, damaged water pipes and water-storage facilities, uprooted fruit trees and one damaged house of worship. The assailants are sometimes masked, sometimes not; sometimes they attack surreptitiously, sometimes in the light of day.

There were two violent attacks a day, in separate venues, on July 13, 14 and 15. The words "death" and "revenge" have been scrawled in various areas; a more original message promises that "We will yet slaughter."

It's no accident that the diligent anti-Semitism researchers have left out this data. That's because they don't see it as relevant, since the Semites who were attacked live in villages with names like Jalud, Mughayer and At-Tuwani, Yanun and Beitilu. The daily dose of terrorizing (otherwise known as terrorism ) that is inflicted on these Semites isn't compiled into a neat statistical report, nor is it noticed by most of the Jewish population in Israel and around the world - even though the incidents resemble the stories told by our grandparents.

Between the 23rd and the 25th of August, Yale University held a conference on Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity." It was sponsored by the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism. Therefore, this was a university event and not one brought in from the outside to use Yale facilities. On the surface there is nothing wrong with this. Anti-Semitism is an age old form of racism and it calls for ongoing academic study. The problem is that this particular conference approached the subject from the ideologically driven position of radical Zionism. In other words, many of the assumptions upon which the conference was built were unfortunately tainted with bias. Indeed, in at least one instance (a panel on the "self-hating" Jew), one might suggest that the event was itself promoting a particularly virulent form of anti-Semitism. Very odd indeed.

Are Canadian Jews going to be seduced by a government that uses anti-Semitism for political reasons?

Gerald Caplan

...KAIROS is a Canadian NGO whose mission is social justice and support for oppressed groups. What's distinct about it is that it's the only such organization supported by just about all Canadian churches. When KAIROS was abruptly defunded by CIDA early in December, officials claimed it no longer fit CIDA priorities. But on the basis of a few other hints, I reached a different conclusion. The Conservatives simply can't stomach KAIROS' support of Palestinians, even if that support is restricted to those who protest peacefully against Israeli actions. Now Jason Kenney has confirmed my deduction....

Eight Jewish Canadian women who were arrested while holding a protest inside the Israeli consulate have been released.

The RCMP arrested and handcuffed the women, who were staging a sit-in protest against the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza inside the consulate at 180 Bloor St. W. The women were held briefly inside a paddy wagon, but were not charged and were released.